Book Tour Day 1 report

Meet Spike. Spike is the mascot at the St. Bernard’s School in St. Paul, my first official book tour stop. It was a terrific place to launch.

After St. Bernard’s my ready, willing and able author schlepper, Kathy, took me to the famous Red Balloon Bookstore.

Where I gawked at everything (including this gorgeous window) and then signed all their stock. Well, all their stock of books that I had written. Though I offered to sign other people’s bpoks. But they said that wasn’t necessary.

The afternoon was spent at Roseville Middle School. No joke, it was one of the best sessions have ever had in ten years of visiting schools. I sort of lost track of time, but I think the students and I talked for almost two hours before they lined up to have me sign every book and scrap of paper they could find in the library.

All hail Roseville librarian Linda Gallus for an extraordinary job of preparing her students for my visit. And many thanks for the goodie bag!! (The photo is proof that book lovers come in all sizes.)

The evening event was at the largest bookstore in Minnesota, the Roseville Barnes & Noble. As it was a Tuesday night, I did not have expectations for a high turn-out. I was wrong. Maria Capecchi of Rush City High School brought a large group of her students to listen to me (it was an hour’s drive for them!), a few kids from Roseville came to hear me again, and many other kids and random adults showed up.

Meet Julia, who came to my event after meeting Hillary Clinton, no joke. Julia knew that it is my birthday tomorrow, so she brought me my favorite candy, candy corn, to celebrate. Thank you so much!

Sarah was very sweet and came out to hear me again, too. Oh, and a very smart reader named Kate brought me a new cover design for CATALYST along with her rationale for why it works better than the current cover. I think she’s right and I am going to send it to my editor. Thank you, Sarah and Kate!

And here are Brittany and Bridgette who made shirts of the CHAINS cover because they are amazing crafty people. They’ve done this for books by John Green and Stephanie Meyer, too. I was completely blown away. Does anyone want to hire these girls as summer interns? They’ve got book passion, they’re crafty, and they know how to work! Thank you, Sisters of the Book Shirt!!!!

Happy birthday! I am right now sitting in a computer room in Sweden finding fact about your book ‘Speak’ (my all-time favourite) for a book presentation and found out that today was your birthday. I love those coincidences. <3